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Dwarves
Dwarves are a race of intelligent humanoids commonly found underground or in mountainous areas. Industrious and productive, dwarves are a generally lawful species, dedicated to their deity and their king. History Moradin, the Soulforger, created the dwarves on the day of creation, hammering out their souls upon his Anvil of Creation. Breathing life into his children, Moradin went to the conclave of the gods, where the homes of their children would be decided by lot. Moradin chose the lot that would protect his children - placing them in caves and underground, where the comforting stone would protect them from the ills of the world. After the gods rose from the world, the dwarves expanded their underground empires, searching always for the gifts of Moradin - gold, precious metals and gemstones. With the wealth that they discovered, the dwarves made peace with the races around them. The dwarves have been settled in and ruled from Lannettcrag for at least the last thousand years, and possibly longer - the dwarves claim their ancestry back to the dawn of time, although they are less than specific about actual dates. Language The Dwarven tongue, Khuzdul, is said to have been given to the dwarves by Moradin himself on the day of creation, although non-dwarven scholars dispute this claim, pointing to linguistic similarities with Gnomish and Elven, although these similarites are disputed with equal fervour by dwarven linguists, who point out that there is no consensus on which language is older - Dwarven or Elven. In comparison with Elven, and with most languages, Dwarven is a functional, unimaginative language, suited to the dwarves and their purposes. Non-dwarves claim that the writing of songs and poetry in Dwarven is both difficult and futile, although dwarven bards and ollams are happy to produce great sagas and epics of old to refute this. Government The ruler of all dwarves is the King Under The Mountain, a hereditary monarch who can trace his family line back to the creation of Lannettcrag. His immediate advisors are the underkings of the great delves, each of whom has a similarly exalted pedigree. Expansion Historical records of both the dwarves and the surface-dwellers indicate that the dwarves remained beneath the Landspine until relatively recently, when the domestication of the first delvers permitted the dwarves to begin their extensive underground tunnelling process. The first delve outside of the Landspine was Tammell, constructed from underneath and intended to allow the dwarves to communicate with the nearby towns. This first contact was a success, and the dwarves rapidly spread, occasionally starting from the surface but more typically simply emerging from the ground and announcing the presence of a new delve. Major cities The most major city of the dwarves is certainly Lannettcrag, their ancient capital and home. Lannettcrag spreads for more than ten miles along the centre of the Landspine, and the heart of the city is the soaring cavern carved from the inside of the King of the Mountains. Other major dwarven delves often have two names - the names the dwarves use for the delve itself, and the name of the city beneath which it can be found. Almost all surface cities with more than about ten thousand residents have a delve either directly underneath or within a few miles. Relations with other races The dwarves are an inherently isolationist people, and they do not welcome tourists or non-dwarven immigrants to their underground cities. The dwarven talent with stonework, mining and smithing makes them tolerable for the other races, but few number the dour, serious people as friends. The most notable exception to this are the gnomes, with whom the dwarves seem to have an almost fraternal connection. Similarities between Dwarven and Gnomish are a factor in this, as is both races' fondness for subsurface dwelling. Culture Most non-dwarves will claim that the children of stone have no culture, that the higher arts are lost to them. Certainly, very few dwarves ever take up painting or ceramics, and the majority of their artistic efforts are directed towards practical goals, such as smithing, engineering and architecture. However, the often-repeated claim that poetry is impossible in Dwarven is repudiated by the talented and honoured dwarven ollams, the keepers of oral history. The dwarves pass down their history both in written form and in long, detailed sagas. The longest of these sagas, Moradin Guides His Children, is the tale of Ironfinder, one of the first dwarves, and consists of the story of his life and the blessings of Moradin shown thereby. The saga is considered the highest form of artistic expression in dwarven life, and it is a common objective of adventurers to achieve such heights as to be immortalised in the slow, determined chant of the sagas of the dwarves. Infrastructure Category:Races